Another Sleep Paralysis

By Georgia Bowan

Another sleep paralysis

I was zoning in and out of this dream about water parks, Elle Fanning, a little boy called Trick. I have a lot of dreams about water, waterparks, not usually about the Fannings though.

I wake up the first time. I’m physically unable to keep myself conscious. My arms and legs are heavy and won’t move. I can’t even move my head, just my eyelids that are going crazy up and down, up and down. I’m so tired, like heavy and tired and I want to wake up but I can’t keep myself awake. I have to fall straight back into the same dream. I surrender to sleep. This happens like 5 times. This is how it goes:

I am awake, my eyes flickered and I could hear my mother doing laundry and my father opening the door. I must be dreaming now, I’m not sure, I saw my door open and I saw items of clothing on the floor. When I forced myself awake for real, the door was closed and there were no clothes on the floor.

I knew subconsciously I had to wake up because I had slept in way too long so I kept trying to record my dream in my sleep. I was writing down on paper with pink pen (it wasn’t my handwriting) in my dream but then woke up falsely into a new dream I thought was reality where the paper was blank all over again. Began to write again in green pen (still not my handwriting) I was desperate to record this dream so I could wake up and remember. I couldn’t seem to force myself awake, it didn’t correlate that writing in a dream means you can’t see it in reality when you wake up. I started writing on my arm because I thought I would wake up and see the writing on my body???

Finally I wake up for real, I was surprised and disappointed there was no paper or pen or writing on my body. Couldn’t move my body, eyes flickered, didn’t know where I was, couldn’t keep my eyes open, heard my mother doing laundry, opening my door. Went back into the dream for the third time.

Surrounded by the dream characters again: Trick and Elle Fanning and the water parks. I’ve realised I need to wake up, this is a goal of mine. I tell the characters I need to wake up, but I need to remember this dream before I can wake up. They try to give me advice but I’ve realised they’re not real and don’t care to hear their voices.

Somehow it happens again, fourth time, I’m pulled into another dream that I believe is me waking up in reality. Dad is telling me to wake up, I can’t move my body and I want to tell him I’m sick so I don’t have to go to school. I think I’m still at Narrabundah, or Radford? There is laundry on the floor, a blue top my mother wore in the 90s.

Then I wake up for real again and once again my eyes dart open, I look at the grey curtain with the bow by my bed. Can’t move my body and my eyes are trying to stay awake. I feel exhausted so exhausted like when you’re on a plane and can’t sleep and you’re forced to be awake and it’s agony. I’m trying to stop myself falling asleep, trying to wake my body up but soon without even REALISING it’s happened, I’ve slipped back in.

So in this part of the dream I think I’m awake entirely: I can’t even remember what I was doing but I was certain I was awake. I was in the same room maybe just waking up casually getting up starting my day. Then suddenly without trying to I get ripped out of the dream back into reality for a FIFTH time and look at the grey curtain with the ribbon bow again. That curtain is my gage on reality and dream.

I know I’m awake for real this time. This freaks me out because I thought I was already awake. Still I’m unmoving for a while, but I think the fear or shock makes me really focused on waking up. I sit there for a few minutes just looking at my room, remembering where I am and what room and what city I’m in. My arms and legs aren’t ready to move just my head. I literally could have sworn my parents were here but they weren’t. Eventually when I reach for my phone, my whole body snaps out of it.

Now I’m not tired anymore and I’m writing this down. I don’t think I was even tired at all, like I slept 12 hours there’s no way I was exhausted. I think my mind was awake to a degree and my body was in the dream still. It was sort of torturous really, like being ripped back and forth from dimensions and getting so confused. I heard things that weren’t there. I saw things I thought were there but weren’t. And worst part? Can’t even remember my dream.